Talent should not have a gender: Karan Johar

Filmmaker Karan Johar, who is launching a female director for the first time with "Gippi" under his banner, says talent is above gender.

Sonam Nair makes her directorial debut with "Gippi", produced by Karan's Dharma Productions, which traces the changes in the life of a teenage girl.

"Talent does not have a gender at all and it should not have a gender. Sonam Nair is a very talented young girl. It does not matter that she is a girl, she is very talented director," Karan told reporters here.

So far, Karan has launched a bevy of new directors - Nikhil Advani ("Kal Ho Naa Ho"), Punit Malhotra ("I Hate Luv Storys"), Ayan Mukerji ("Wake Up Sid"), Siddharth Malhotra ("We Are Family"), Shakun Batra ("Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu") and Karan Malhotra ("Agneepath(2012)").

"Only in our country we make such differences like, 'Oh, first time you are working with a female director'...I have been asked this question a lot. I think she (Sonam Nair) is very talented and talent should not have a gender," said the 41-year-old.

With his last directorial venture "Student Of The Year", he launched four fresh actors - Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan, Siddharth Malhotra and Kayoze Irani. Now "Gippi" will introduce Delhi-based girl Riya Vij, who plays the title role, to showbiz.

Karan believes that it's necessary to bring in new talents.

"New faces, new stars and the new breeding talents are the only future (of the industry). Today, we will give them platform, and tomorrow they will be the stars. And we have to leverage that star value they bring to the table," Karan said.